You know what needs doing. The people who'd do it are running the operation.
We take senior ownership of warehouse programmes, automation and service recovery in distribution businesses. The change gets delivered and today's operation keeps running.
Book a 20-minute call£25m of stock turned back into cash
Segen. Aged UK inventory cleared without a write-down.
Order backlog cut from £1.1m to £340k in three weeks
Eurocell. On-time in-full from 70% to 95%.
19 of 26 markets live two months early
Mundipharma. 4PL transition delivered 1.2% under budget.
Companies we've helped
Selected businesses and teams we have supported across operations, logistics, supply chain and transformation
Two ways this usually starts
The plan is approved and nobody has the room to deliver it
The business case is signed off. The scope is right. But the people who would run it are the same people holding the operation together every day, and the operation wins every time. Six months on, the programme has a steering group and not much else.
Everyone is doing their job and the result is still slipping
The integrator has a plan. The contractor has a plan. The operation still has customers to serve tomorrow morning. Each of them is doing their job. Nobody owns what happens between them, and that is where go-live dates move, budgets slip and service quietly falls away until a customer notices first.
Both need the same thing. Somebody senior who owns the outcome, full time, until it is done.
Where we are most useful
A warehouse or automation investment that needs a client side owner
We test the business case, run the tender, hold the integrator and the contractor to one plan, and get the operation ready to take the change.
Service that has slipped and will not come back on its own
OTIF, back-orders, damage, complaints, safety, and 3PL networks nobody is really managing.
Cash and cost tied up in the operation
Too much stock, too many sites, too many carriers, and a budget that only moves one way.
"If you need someone who can bring order, visibility and momentum to complex logistics and supply chain change projects, I strongly recommend Itayi."
We do not sell automation, WMS software or engineering design. The job is to make your operation work across the people who do.
Automation that cannot stop the operation
Most automation advice assumes an empty building. The harder work is putting it into a site that has to keep shipping.
We are doing it now at Alloga UK, Cencora's UK pharmaceutical logistics business. AutoStore, pallet shuttle and automated guided vehicles going into a live GDP site that ships medicines every day, covering stock relocation, enabling works, WMS and WCS integration, factory and site acceptance testing, validation and readiness.
We did it before at Wincanton's site for Screwfix and B&Q. A Matflo WMS upgrade and automation changes delivered with Dematic inside a live one million square foot operation running around the clock and supporting around £378m of annual revenue.
Two live sites, nine years apart, one of them regulated. Very few people can show that twice.
What we have delivered
One month early, £715k under budget
Client side programme director on a c.£40m capital programme at Alloga UK, Cencora's UK pharmaceutical logistics business. The new 237,000 square foot warehouse, holding around 53,000 pallets, was delivered one month early and £715k under budget. £457k of that was capital and £258k operating.
Eight vendors, one signed order
The automation tender at Alloga taken from user requirements to signed order across eight vendors, covering site surveys, reference visits, IT integration review and safety case.
OTIF 88% → 97% in four months
OTIF from 88% to 97% in four months at Segen, a £300m renewables wholesaler, with complaints down 20% in three months.
Refund time 18 days → 4
EU refund times cut from 18 days to 4 at URBN, owner of Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie and Free People, with a move from carton to pallet picking that saved £269k a year.
On-time delivery 92% → 97%
On-time delivery from 92% to 97% at Alliance Healthcare, across three automated warehouses and twelve sortation centres, with quarantined stock cut from £800k to £58k in four months.
"We onboarded 19/26 markets ahead of plan with stable, compliant go-lives. Robust governance made complex change low-risk."
How an engagement starts
then one of
If you already know what you need, say so on the call and we will scope the mandate. No diagnostic, no preamble.
If the position is not clear, start with the Programme Verdict. Ten working days, fixed fee agreed before we begin. You get one reconciled view of where the programme or the operation actually stands, what is exposed in service, cash, cost and capital, the decisions that are overdue and who owns them, and what has to happen in the next 90 days.
If it turns out to be under control, we say so and you keep the work.
How we work. Two ways. As an interim director inside the business, or on a retained mandate delivered with i.m&co associates. Itayi leads both, and the accountability stays with him either way.
Who it is for
Distribution intensive businesses turning over £150m to £750m, including divisions and subsidiaries of larger groups that run their own P&L and make their own decisions.
The work usually makes sense when at least £5m of committed capital or £1m a year of service, cash or operating cost is exposed, there is no permanent programme office, and a COO or MD can commit without a three month procurement cycle.
Retail, e-commerce and wholesale distribution first. Pharmaceutical and healthcare distribution under GDP. PE-backed and founder-owned distribution businesses. Building products and 3PLs selectively.
Who it is not for
General strategy work. Engineering design. Software configuration. Regulatory sign-off. Cheap PMO capacity. A report that validates a decision already taken.
Who leads and who delivers
Itayi Mapuranga leads every engagement. He scopes the work himself, chairs the sponsor meetings and carries the outcome.
Where the work needs more hands than one person can give, delivery capacity is agreed with you by name before anyone starts. You will know who is on your site and what they are there to do.
"He's been an invaluable asset, and if budget constraints allowed, I'd keep him in a heartbeat."
Fifteen years in management, twelve in warehousing, transport and supply chain, and over four in pharmaceutical distribution under GDP. Most of the record is e-commerce and retail distribution at Amazon, Screwfix, B&Q, URBN and UK Flooring Direct, with wholesale and manufacturing at Segen, Eurocell and Mondelēz, and regulated pharmaceutical distribution at Alliance Healthcare, Mundipharma and Cencora. He has run a £22.4m P&L with 450 people and 170 vehicles, and an 820-person automated fulfilment site.
Executive MBA, Cranfield. MSc Advanced Chemical Engineering with IT and Management, Loughborough. CMILT, MIIM, PRINCE2 Practitioner, Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, IOSH Managing Safely. Non-Executive Director at The Leprosy Mission Trading, 2021 to 2025.
i.m&co was founded in 2021.
Common questions
If somebody senior already owns this and has the room to do it, there is no reason to talk.
If the plan is approved and nothing has moved, or service has been drifting and the actions keep coming back unowned, fifteen minutes will tell us both whether this is worth taking further.
Book a 20-minute call